About the job

Job summary

This is an exciting opportunity to be part of the development of a world class science facility delivering infrastructure critical to animal health and farming in the UK. The SCAH programme is designed to deliver the new facilities over a ten-year programme of work, with a budget in excess of £1B.

Job description

Defra group is responsible for safeguarding our natural environment, supporting our world-leading food and farming industry, and sustaining a thriving rural economy. Its mission is to protect and enhance the environment – with policies and actions that are also key to sustainable national growth.

The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) works to safeguard animal and plant health for the benefit of people, the environment and the economy. APHA is responsible for veterinary research and surveillance; it is at the forefront of research into diseases such as TB, TSEs, Blue Tongue and Avian Influenza; it is critical in protecting the UK farming and food industries from the impact of animal disease and for ensuring that outbreaks of animal disease are successfully contained.

The Science Capability for Animal Health (SCAH) programme involves the re-development of APHA’s science laboratories based at Weybridge. The site has a wide range of specialist and complex scientific facilities, laboratories and a range of other buildings, and is one of only a small number of such sites across the world. The Weybridge site is the largest facility in terms of size and complexity across the Defra network.

This Programme will oversee the re-development of this large site over a 10-year period. It is critical to the continued successful running of APHA’s science business to enhance the capability and update the research facilities. The programme includes the clearing of part of the site, by temporarily relocating a substantial part of the APHA team and facilities to allow the construction of a consolidated Science Hub.

This major redevelopment has the added complication of maintaining science operations on the site during the development of the new facilities. The vision of the SCAH Programme is to bring all facilities, laboratories and associated functions together into new fit for purpose facilities, together with the required infrastructure and public realm improvements.

Role Purpose

The Deputy Director, Central Programme Office (CPO) is a key role within the SCAH programme. The key immediate focus will be to provide leadership and direction for the central information hub of the programme, working closely with the SRO and Programme Director, peers within the client-side senior leadership team, and with the Programme Controls (PC) team within the Delivery Partner (DP).

The post holder will oversee the development and maturing of client-side programme controls – including scheduling, performance reporting, risk and issue management – and in doing so ensure that the Defra client interest in timely delivery of the required capability within budget is fully realised. They will interface with the PC Team, facing into their programme and project level controls, ensuring flow through of key performance metrics into senior leadership, facilitating and enabling timely decision making and issue resolution.

The ability to build and foster strong relationships with senior decision makers, peers and suppliers will be critical. Effectiveness in this role will require the ability to listen, think, and act in concert with others. The ability to operate within the GMPP and Whitehall environment and the key strategic interfaces for a major complex infrastructure programme will ensure that the programme retains close alignment with Ministers and senior officials across Government.

This Deputy Director role will operate within the Defra Group Project Delivery Profession. Reporting to the SCAH Programme Director with specific responsibility for leadership of the Central Programme Office. They will be a key part of the SCAH Senior Leadership team, working closely with the SCAH Programme Executive, the main internal Governance Board for the Programme.

Key responsibilities

• Equip the client-side programme team (primarily the SRO, Programme Director and APHA Science Director – the Programme Executive)
 with the appropriate strategic information enabling proactive, efficient decision making, facilitating structure, consistency and clarity.
• Facilitate best practice processes, tools and practices across the sub-programmes and project teams – including the preparation of PIDs, SOCs, OBCs, FBCs.
• Facilitate programme risk/issue management, managing strategic risks.
• Manage the Level 0 programme plan (schedule) on behalf of the programme management team (Integrated programme plan).
• Provide a strategic overview of the programme and its interdependencies.
• Manage programme reporting (Dashboard) and Decision Support Tools (Pipeline).
• Facilitate Programme Cost Assurance (sets funding envelope for each project, recommends (to Programme Executive) release of contingency/OB or Inflation to project team at key decision points (via supply chain cost consultant).• Manage change control against funding envelope (via cost consultant).
• Source of all key project data (work breakdown structure, project register, project documents, templates, processes, tools etc).
• Provide support to project teams to facilitate best practice across the programme.
• Provide key link with the Delivery Partner Programme Controls team (which provides data and feeds it to the CPO who uses it on onward reporting, decision support etc).
• Ensure Programme Assurance is working effectively.
• Ensure the programme applies appropriate internal standards and controls for around it's information assets. Work with the SCAH Security Lead to ensure appropriate security arrangements are in place across the programme and our supply chain.
• The CPO Lead will manage a small team with most of the content (single source of truth) coming from the Delivery Partner. The CPO will need to liaise across the Senior Leadership Team (SLT).

Person specification

Successful candidates must be able to demonstrate the following qualifications, skills and experience:

Essential Criteria
• Experience of leading a Programme Management Office within an Intelligent Client function overseeing the delivery of major complex construction projects. You know what good looks like and can demonstrate your role in delivering it.
• A track record of building collaborative working relationships at all levels – senior, peer, reports, supply chain and external stakeholders
– and through this, delivering high quality, reliable outcomes.
• Experience of working with supply chain, and / or a Delivery Partner in a complex programme and through that delivering a quality service.
• Strong leadership skills with a track record of leading high-calibre, multi-disciplinary teams (across multiple suppliers) to deliver against demanding timescales across diverse customer groups;
• A professional qualification in Programme and Project Management;
• Experience of leading projects within the GMPP Portfolio with the associated governance and oversight requirements.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £75,000, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs contributes £20,250 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

To apply for this post, you will need to complete the online application process no later than 17:00pm on Tuesday 20 August 2024.
All applications must be submitted using the link www.gatenbysanderson.com/job/GSe113746

You will be asked to submit the following:
1. Some basic personal information collected by the online system.
2. A CV setting out your career history, with key responsibilities and achievements. Please ensure you have provided reasons for any gaps within the last two years
3. A Statement of Suitability, (no longer than 1250 words) explaining how you consider your personal skills, qualities and experience provide evidence of your suitability for the role, with reference to the essential criteria in the person specification.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window). People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window). The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria. The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.